August 5, 1886] 
NATURE 
313 
Halos and Mock Suns 
On Tuesday, July 20, about 5.15 p.m., I saw from this neigh- 
bourhood a most remarkable series of halos and parhelia, the 
general appearance of which is represented in the accompanying 
figure. (The parhelia at 120°, Pi and pi’, cannot be represented 
in the figure.) 
As I happened to have a theodolite near at hand, I measured 
the altitudes and azimuths of the parhelia and contact arches, 
and also of two points on the larger halo, with the following 
result :— 
Azimuth : 
by back angle Biome, 
Sun 320° 25 
pe Angular distance 
Parhelia from sun 
pi an 347 25 sae 2 
pii - 293 25 _ 2 
piil te 80 25 120 
piv 200 25 120 
Radius of large halo 
from mean of two 
observations 
Left extremity (A!) ... 285 ae Sis) 62° 20° 
Right extremity (a') ... 353 30 gs ie 29 
The positions of the two parhelia ri piv (or more properly 
speaking, anthelia) at 120° on either side of the sun, exactly 
accord with what is given in the text-books, but the solar longi- 
tude of the parhelia on the primary halo 27°, and the dimen- 
sions of the larger halo 634°, usually given as 46°, are greater 
than those usually recorded. 
The following features were observed :-— 
(1) The parhelion, p# 27°, to the left of the sun, was very 
brightly visible before that on the right appeared at all. 
(2) The parhelic circle appeared to encircle the entire sky, 
and to be everywhere of the same altitude—25°—as that of the 
sun. 
(3) The contact arch, B, at the top of the larger halo, was 
remarkably brilliant, being red on the side adjacent to the sun, 
Contact-arch 
to inner halo 
\ Brilliant 
Blue 4/ Contact Arch 
eZ near the Zenith. 
White — 
Parhelic 
Circle. 
[46] Halo 
and blue on that furthest from it, and appeared to be almost 
exactly at the zenith, thus supporting the somewhat rough 
measurements of the outer halo, which made it considerably 
larger than the traditional 46°. 
(4) The contact arches a' ai were also very brilliant, and the 
space within them as well as that within the inner halo 2% was 
much darker than that outside. 
(5) The colours of the outer halo, H H, were similar to those 
of the inner halo, 44, viz. red inside and blue outside, but 
fainter. 
(6) The parhelia attached to the inner circle p! pii were simi- 
larly red inside and blue outside, while those at 120° were 
perfectly white. 
The whole phenomenon lasted about twenty minutes, and was 
one of the most beautiful sights I ever saw. I was experiment- 
ing with a captive balloon at the time, or should have been able 
to make more detailed observations. I hear that on Monday 
night a deluge of rain of a tropical character fell at Dieppe. The 
cloud which caused these unusual optical phenomena appeared 
to be of the type termed by Poéy globo-cirrus. I shall be 
* Sun's altitude = 25°, radius of halo = 634°, which would make the lower 
extremity of the top contact-arch 88}° above horizon. 
glad to hear if any corroborative measurements were made by 
other observers. E, DouG1LAs ARCHIBALD 
Tunbridge Wells, July 
P.S. No parhelia were visible at the junction of the larger 
halo HH with the parhelic circle. Also there were no signs of 
the rare 90° radius halo, The radius of the inner halo was not 
measured, but as the lateral deviation of the parhelia pi p# from 
the points in which it intersected the parhelic circle for a solar 
altitude of 25° should be about 2° 7’, this would make the radius 
of the inner halo 24° 53’ instead of 22° 30’ as is generally the 
case. 
ON Tuesday afternoon, 20th inst., while sketching near Cran- 
brook, in the Weald of Kent, I saw a magnificent example of 
mock suns and solar rainbow circles. 
Fr. m an early part of the day the sky had been, I think, 
more splendid in its cloud arrangements of cirrcecumulus than 
I have ever seen in this or any other country, though I have al- 
ways been a delighted student of these phenomena. From 10 a m, 
toabout 4 p.m. there was an incessant change of loveliness in the 
forms and po-itions of the clouds and the remarkable perspec- 
tives thereby produced, to the intense admiration of myself and 
wife. But about 4 o’clock one half of the heavens from the 
horizon to the zenith became nearly covered with a thin stratum 
of dark clouds, which resembled more than anythi g else innu- 
merable long bundles of cotton fibre, placed in every possible 
direction. The other half of the sky was of the richest and most 
delicate ultramarine as a background, and the fleecy mare's fail 
and flocks of sheep cloudlets as the subjects. On the dark strata 
of clouds the mock suns made their appearance, the real sun 
shining through the clouds with great intensity. 
The whole phenomenon did not fade out till nearly 6 o'clock. 
As I saw it for some time reflected in a large sheet of water, I 
had good opportunities of studying it. 
The setting of the sun that night was the most gorgeous 
pageant—myriads of golden streamers, in groups, being sent up 
from purple and scarlet clouds. Ropert H. F. Rippon 
Jasper Road, Upper Norwood, July 28 
N.B. The clouds in the vicinity of the sun were slightly 
opalescent.—R. H. F. R. 
A Singular Cese 
ON March 2 last a small fishing-boat engaged in trawling at 
about 20 kilometres from the coast, off Monte Argentaro (Tuscan 
Maremma), captured a specimen of the Mediterranean Red 
Mullet (AZutlus barbatus) tightly incased in a large colony of 
Pyrosoma atlanticum. Vhe head of the fish had reached the 
bottom of the social cylinder, which fitted it toa nicety. The 
Pyrosoma measures 0'112 millimetre in length and 0°032 milli- 
metre at its greatest transverse diameter; the mullet is o'152 
millimetre long, so that only o’040 millimetre of its tail pro- 
jects beyond the tightly-fitting Pyrosoma! ‘The fish was taken 
alive, but how it could have lived in such conditions or how it 
got into its tight jacket is to me most enigmatical. Even ad- 
mitting a certain amount of elasticity in the tight-fitting tube in 
which its head, body, and fins are incased, its movements could 
ouly have been very limited, and a very inc mplete respiration 
and perhaps nutrition might have come to it through the orifices 
of the zooids. 
Young fish, especially Scomberoids, are often found under the 
shelter of Meduse and PAysalia—the case of /ierasfer getting 
in'o the visceral cavity of /Yfo/othuria is well known ; but it is 
the fir-t time I have seen or heard of so singular a case of 
imprisonment as the one related above, and I therefore thought 
it worthy of the attention of the readers of NArurE. The 
specimen is preserved in alcohol in the rich ichthyological series 
of the collectio. of Italian Vertebrata in the Florence Royal 
Zoological Museum. Henry HH. GiGLio.r 
Florence, July 29 
The Weather at Caracas 
THE following notes on the weather at Caracas during the 
remarkable storm from May Ir to 15 may not be void of 
interest :-— 
We had a rather low barometer on May 8 (10a m., 682°93 
mm.; 4 p.m., 681°99 mm.), but then it rose gradually till 
May 18 (685°42 and 68317 mm. respectively), There had 
been no rain in the first twelve days of the month, but from 
